Here Comes the Sun

Winter can be depressing, but if lighttherapyproducts.com is right, happy days are just a one-hour battery pack, $280 and a few white plastic visors away.

The company is one of several to capitalize on what is actually a serious psychological condition. Seasonal Affective Disorder—cleverly abbreviated SAD—entails more than just a dislike of the winter months.

“There’s a lot of students who hate the winter because it’s yucky and gray, and that gets them down, but that’s not necessarily SAD,” says Winthrop A. Burr, a psychiatrist at UHS.

Symptoms of SAD are pretty much the same as non-seasonal depression: reduced work activity, withdrawal from social contacts, extreme fatigue, carbohydrate cravings, weight gain and suicidal thoughts. Only with SAD, normal feelings of well-being return in March and April. Between one and five percent of people living in New England suffer from SAD, with another ten to fifteen percent experiencing milder symptoms, according to the Yale Department of Psychiatry website. The website did not say whether Yale students are significantly more depressed than Harvard students.

For those who are SAD at Harvard, there is some hope.

As with all ailments, capitalism has found a way to cash in on people’s suffering. Several Froogle searches led FM to the following untested solutions to the winter blues.

University Health Services

UHS offers a variety of resources for students coping with SAD. In addition to their psychological services, UHS also has light boxes available for week-long loans—at no cost.

For those in need of a little stress relief, UHS also offers hour-long massages. No matter what your problem is, you know that’s gotta be good.

VERILUX HAPPY LIGHT DELUXE!

More than a regular bedside lamp, light boxes can provide relief to many SAD sufferers, bathing users in full-spectrum lighting that mimics the effects of the sun. Advertisers claim light therapy works in up to 70 percent of users, and science tends to agree. “Light therapy certainly works for some people, but there’s been a lot of controversy because it’s been hard to prove it in placebo-controlled trials,” says Burr. “Still, there’s enough evidence that it is [effective].”

Effective, maybe; expensive, definitely. One of the cheapest models we found, the Verilux Happy Light Deluxe, still costs $170 from toolsforwellness.com.

More adventurous (and less fashion-conscious) students might also try the Deluxe Light Visor ($280) from lighttherapyproducts.com. Twelve light-emitting diodes fit on a not-too-hefty visor which can be worn anytime – eating in the dining hall, sitting in lecture, or out at a party on a Saturday night.

DEPRESS-EX

Herbal remedies are touted as a cure for everything from the common cold to cancer and now even SAD. Some recommended products include fish oil capsules, St. John’s Wort, rhodolia root powder, ginger grass incense, bergamont oil and gingko biloba, all of which can be found at kalyx.com.

Those looking for an all-in-one panacea might try products like “The Serenity Pill” and “Depress-Ex,” which claim to alleviate feelings of seasonal depression. But be forewarned: these herbal remedies, unevaluated by the FDA, offer no guarantees.

“I really don’t think there is any evidence to support them,” says Burr. “St. John’s Wort is used a lot, but it’s been proven in research to be not very effective.”

CHROMOTHERAPY

Everyone’s heard about feng shui. “Chromotherapy” follows the same principle, but instead of furniture placement, this kind uses colors to influence moods. White in particular is purported to relieve SAD—so break out your white sweaters or just gaze on some of that ubiquitous snow. Unlike lamps, snow is free!

In the same vein is sound therapy. The CD “Sound Techniques for Relieving Depression,” available for $12.95 at brain.com, claims to restore feelings of happiness with visualization exercises and “expertly engineered theta frequencies.”

IG700 TABLETOP GENERATOR

Also in the alternative medicine camp are those who claim the presence of negative ions can alleviate symptoms of depression.

Negative ion generators, like the IG 700 Tabletop Generator ($112.95) from costlessappliances.com, might offer relief similar to that provided by sun lamps. One company looks on the bright side of the negative: toolsforwellness.com’s Sun Touch Plus combines a negative ion generator and a light box into one product. Too good to be true? That’s why it costs $250.